CORRESPONDENCE. 345 
when and where labour is cheap and cultivation is easy, experiment on 
the large scale is justifiable by reasonable, but moderate, prospects of 
success. I believe that all the essential virtues of New Zealand flax 
will be found in many other fibres, which are not, as yet, subjects of 
preparation on the large scale ; that labour will become cheaper and 
more abundant in other colonies besides New Zealand, which are quite 
as rich in fibre-producing plants ; and that the difficulties attending 
the separation and dressing of the fibre will probably be more speedily 
overcome in the case of other fibrous plants than in that of the New 
Zealand flax-plant. In making so strong a statement, I have no de- 
sire to repress the natural efforts of the New Zealand colonists in the 
direction of experiment, but I do think, that in this case, as in the case 
of their coals and other indigenous produce, they entertain exaggerated 
ideas of value, — ideas which have led, and do lead, to rash speculation 
and unproductive experiment. 
It appears to me that a hopeful direction of experiment is in con- 
nection with the acclimatization of the plant in older countries suited 
for its growth, where modifications of the machinery and chemical 
processes used in the preparation of other fibres of a similar kind 
might readily be brought to bear on the fresh leaf. I believe there are 
many countries suitable for the growth of New Zealand flax : and it 
remains, indeed, to be proved, whether it could or not be grown to a 
sufficient extent for experimental purposes in Britain, in several parts 
of which the plant has been found to thrive well. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
Eryngium campestre. 
Very few localities are known in Britain for the Eryngium campestre, and 
therefore a fresh one deserves to be recorded. At a meeting of the Malvern 
Naturalists' Club at Tedstone, Herefordshire, a short time since, when I was 
present as Vice-President, a clergyman (Rev. P. Onslow) produced for my 
inspection the leaves of a plant that he had gathered that morning in walking 
from Upper Sapey, an adjoining parish to Tedstone. There was some quan- 
tity of it, he said, but none in flower ; I immediately recognized the leaves as 
those of Eryngium campestre, though the plant has never, to my knowledge, 
heen gathered either in Herefordshire or Worcestershire. In walking from 
Upper Sapey to Tedstone a part of Worcestershire would be passed over, and 
